Thelesperma longipes
Thelesperma filifolium
long-stalk greenthread, rayless greenthread
Navajo tea, plains greenthread, stiff greenthread
mostly crowded over proximal 1/4–1/2 of plant heights, internodes mostly 5–25+ mm;
lobes mostly linear to filiform, 5–25(–45+) × 0.5(–1) mm.
crowded to ± scattered over proximal 1/2–3/4 of plant heights, internodes mostly 10–35(–50+) mm;
lobes mostly linear to filiform, sometimes oblanceolate, 5–30(–55+) × 0.5–1(–3+) mm.
0.
8;
laminae yellow to golden yellow (sometimes proximally suffused with red-brown), 12–20+ mm.
yellow, sometimes with red-brown nerves, throats equal to or longer than lobes.
red-brown or yellow with red-brown nerves, throats shorter than lobes.
of 5 ovate bractlets 1–3 mm.
of 7–8+ linear to narrowly triangular bractlets (2–)4–8+ mm.
2–3 mm;
pappi usually 0, rarely 0.1–0.3+ mm.
3.5–4+ mm;
pappi 0.5–1(–2+) mm.
= 40.
= 16, 18.
Thelesperma longipes
Thelesperma filifolium
As here circumscribed, Thelesperma filifolium includes plants that others have treated as a distinct species or variety: T. intermedium or T. filifolium var. intermedium, characterized as plants mostly 10–40 cm (versus taller); internodes “relatively short” (versus longer); calyculus bractlets mostly 1/4–1/2 lengths of phyllaries (versus more than 1/2 as long); ray corollas yellow (versus “golden yellow”); disc corollas yellow (versus sometimes red-brown); distribution mostly north and west of the typical form (Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, New Mexico, w Oklahoma, South Dakota, c and w Texas, Wyoming).
According to A. Cronquist (1980), Thelesperma trifidum (Poiret) Britton has been misapplied (e.g., M. L. Fernald 1950) to T. filifolium.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
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